Trussing of poultry for cooking may be accomplished with strings or various types of retainers that hold the legs of eviscerated poultry against the body over the rear body opening. U.S. Pat. No. 3,112,515 shows a widely employed poultry leg retainer and improvements thereon are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,895,415, 4,051,573 and 4,615,075 and reference is made to these patents and the references cited therein for an identification of the state of the art.
It has been found that under certain circumstances of poultry processing, such as freezing, it is possible for the poultry to strike processing apparatus in such a manner that one of the legs held in place by a retainer may be forced inwardly of the body to unseat the hock thereof from the retainer so that it is necessary to reseat the leg in the retainer. The present invention provides an improvement in poultry leg retainers, particularly of the type shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,075, for firmly locking poultry legs in desired position despite blows to the legs that might otherwise unseat a leg from the retainer.